Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Want to get in touch? Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.
In China, since around 2015, smartwatches have become widely used by schoolchildren. They are advertised on television throughout the country as a safety device whereby the child can call in case of emergency. The devices are commonly colorful and made of plastic. They normally have no display unless a button is pushed. These smartwatches have limited capability compared to other smartwatches; their main functions consist of being able to conduct calls, displaying of time, and sometimes have air temperature sensitivity. They cost around $100 to $200 USD.

Why we like it: Fossil’s Q Explorist and Venture watches are good-looking watches with a decent range of case and band options, and decent responsiveness and battery life—this is high praise given the current state of Android smartwatches. They can track steps, control music playback, give you turn-by-turn directions on your wrist, and allow you to respond to messages with your voice or quick-reply taps. But these two models are not unique: The Fossil Group offers an array of more than 300 smartwatches under different fashion brands—including Diesel, Skagen, Tag Heuer, Kate Spade, and Movado—that have essentially the same internal components and software, so you can pick the watch design you like best.

Fossil introduced its fourth generation of smartwatches, the Q Explorist HR and Q Venture HR, upgraded versions of our current picks at the same respective prices. These editions of the watches add untethered GPS, NFC for Google Pay purchases, and heart-rate monitoring. Fossil also claims that they’re waterproof enough for swimming. However, both use an aging Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip when a newer version is expected to arrive in September.
I have the new version Samsung Galaxy watch 46mm. It is excellent. I do not have to use spotify premium to play music. I can simply add tracks (and images too) saved on my Note 8 phone. Bixby can open the apps without turning the bezel. The battery life is not 6 days as advertised, if used all day to make calls, text, listen to music, play games, check emails, read the news, search the internet, etc, then the battery lasts at least 3 days before recharging. There are several free watch faces available through the Galaxy app. This watch can also be used to make sos calls which can be preset for 911 or any contacts you wish to add. Then these contacts can call you back on low volume mode and listen for an hour. You can use this feature with a timer so if you accidentally activate it, you have time to turn it off before it makes the call. Adding a GPS app to this phone can allow you to take a screen shot of your location and send it if in a crisis. Of course the google app for navigation is also available for travel. You can use a wifi connection without your phone, if you turn off bluetooth and select wifi connection to your watch via phone. There is no need to buy the most expensive Samsung Galaxy with the built in sim. Also samsung pay is available on the watch. Of course it has Accelerometer, Gyro, Barometer, HRM, Circular Super AMOLED (360 x 360) Full Color Always On Display, Corning® Gorilla® Glass DX+. There is also a feature that tells you when to take deep breaths while it count the duration of inhaling and exhaling. This is great when you need to stay calm. The workout features are better than on previous Samsung watches. You can monitor calories, caffeine intake, water intake, track your sleep. You can swim with this watch. There is a water lock feature. Once you are out of the water you can expel water from the speaker by tapping a button. This watch has several other functions but It’s too much to write in a quick review. Of course you can add a security pin to your watch, use locator to find your phone or vise versa. You check youtube for more of the features. Samsung doesn’t have everything listed in specs. I’m still keeping my Ferragamo and Versace watches but I think I’m selling the rest of watch collection. The Samsung Galaxy watch has all of the features I need and changing watch bands is easy. I still recommend buying a screen protector and a tpu/silicone case or shell in case you drop your watch. Some sellers are offering a 2 year guarantee which includes accidents but I have the 1 year Samsung warranty. I would love this watch more if it had a nano sd slot. Specs are 768MB RAM and 4GB Internal Memory.
Smartwatches are relatively new gadgets, and their features are continuously improving. Each smartwatch needs to synch to your smartphone to get enhanced features. Once linked, depending on the model of smartwatch, you can forward emails, text messages, GPS directions and more to your wrist. Some smartwatches even have built-in microphones and speakers, allowing you to make phone calls. Calls are routed through your smartphone, just like when using a Bluetooth Headset. The Samsung watch—dubbed the Galaxy Gear—also has an integrated camera, so you can snap spontaneous photos without ever picking up your smartphone. Of course, ever smartwatch also functions as a traditional digital watch when not linked to a smart device. As the technology matures, expect to see more advanced features and perhaps even complete phone functionality built in.

The newest member of the TicWatch family from Mobvoi is the TicWatch Pro. The biggest feature about this smartwatch is that it actually has two displays. The first is a transparent and low-power FTSN LCD display, and that is placed on top of its OLED display. While the top FTSN display shows you basic info like the time, the date, your heart rate and step count, you can switch over to the OLED display, which shows off all of the features of Google’s Wear OS.

The Asus ZenWatch 3 was a previous top pick for a Wear OS smartwatch. As of now, it has reached the end of its Wear OS updates (after a very long delay getting to Android Wear 2.0). Its rotating crown does not actually work to turn or scroll anything on the screen. Its proprietary watch band connections mean that your options are limited to what is available from third parties on Amazon. And the watch is hard to find new.

The Amazfit Bip is thin and light, looks like an Apple Watch, has a lot of sensors inside—GPS, heart rate, accelerometers, barometer, and compass—and can run for about 30 days (which we confirmed) between charges, all for around $100. Those facts are compelling, but actually using the watch is frustrating, and it doesn’t do any one thing well. The GPS and heart-rate monitors can be slow to start, sometimes drop out, occasionally have wild inaccuracies, and produce results notably different from those of running watches and dedicated fitness bands. The screen is also dim and noticeably low-resolution, and the phone software for managing the watch is dense and unintuitive on Android. (We didn’t test iOS, but the reviews imply that it’s not much different.) The watch materials are plastic and rubber, and look and feel like it. Those are all trade-offs you could reasonably make if you just wanted a Pebble-like smartwatch that tracked steps and showed notifications, but even there, the Bip does not succeed: It often dropped connectivity with my phone (a Pixel 2), and it cannot show emoji—getting a dozen blank squares when someone sends you a thumbs-up sign is not helpful. If all you care about is battery life, the Bip has that, but it lacks useful functions while it’s charged up.

The Apple Watch Series 4 is now on sale, and it's the best smartwatch you can buy right now. The redesigned device, which starts at $399 for the GPS model and $499 for the cellular version, is the best smartwatch you can buy. It has a larger display and slightly bigger case size while retaining the same rounded square design the watch is known for. Even more importantly, Apple received FDA clearance for a new electrocardiogram feature that can take a 30-second EKG and diagnose atrial fibrillation.